Succotash

Hello, listener (current, future, or imagined…) I am Marc Hershon and this is Episode 293 or Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. Between myself and your every-other-weekly cohost Tyson Saner, we usually features clips from comedy soundcasts to help you discover new and exciting shows to check out. But February seems to be chat month. My last show, Epi291, I spoke with Matt Knudsen about running his upcoming 10th and final LA Marathon to help raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, along with J. Keith Van Straaten about the live streaming edition last week of his show, Go Fact Yourself.

Then just last week, Tyson interviewed J. Elvis Weinstein – writer, comedian, actor, and a whole lot more. You can still catch that show, Episode 292, wherever fine soundcasts are streamed and/or downloaded: Stitcher, Apple or Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, Audible, PodBay, or our very own homesite, SuccotashShow.com!

This week, I am talking to a buddy from the comedy boom days on the San Francisco standup scene, Tim Bedore. Tim was a radio announcer and personality for a long time – before and during his standup days – and he's been running a soundcast for the past handful of years called An Agnostic's Guide to Heaven. We talk about all of that and more besides in this episode, all of which is brought to you by Henderson's Pants new Poncho Pants, the handy rain gear to cover your rear.

To get into this, I kick things off with a clip from Tim's soundcast. He's talking about kids, participation trophies, and pets. Then we take a moment to hear from Henderson's Pants, after. Which we slide ride into my conversation with Tim.

I also tack on a little extra chatter I had with him after the closing credits - bonus convo!

Please remember to hang back in our same feed next week for another edition of the show with Tyson. Will it be clips? Chat? We won't know until the episode drops next Tuesday at 12:01 AM.

Until then, get the COVID vaccine or booster if you haven't, wear a mask if you need to, try not to be such a dick to people, and remember: The next time you're filling your car with gas and the person at the next pump over asks if you've been listening to anything good lately, won't you please pass the Succotash?

– Marc Hershon

Saluton, estas mi Tyson Saner and I will be your host for the duration of this episode of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, that numbers 292. Last week in Epi291, my co-host and your every-other-show host Marc Hershon served up two generous chunks of chat featuring Matt Knudsen & J. Keith Van Stratten in each their separate segments. It's a great episode that you can still listen to on Stitcher, Apple and Google podcasts, iHeart Radio, Podbay, Soundcloud and many places (other than Spotify…) And, of course you can always find us and our show archive over at SuccotashShow.com where this episode that you are listening to right now absolutely resides if you are, in fact, listening to it.

And if you ARE listening to this, then you will no doubt be delighted with what I've got in store for you. I managed to convince J. Elvis Weinstein to have a chat with me very recently. I was thrilled to be able to do so…and I'm still smiling about it. Co-host of soundcasting's Thought Spiral with past Succotash guest Andy Kindler, Mr. Weinstein is also a stand-up comedian, actor, filmmaker, musician and writer for television who has been in the business more-or-less since shortly after he began performing stand-up comedy at the age of 15. I don't want to talk too much at the head of the program and I already run the risk of doing so.

Our chat is only briefly interrupted by a word form our mythological sponsor, Henderson's Pants, and I must warn you: The sound is a bit rough at times, which is 100% on me. My audio actually dropped out a few times and I will be making no attempt to hide that as you may or may not notice.

I really did have a great time chatting with Mr. Weinstein. And I absolutely forgot a few things that I was going to ask about or mention but, for the most part, I satisfied my curiosity as a fanboy. I'm going to thank Mr. Weinstein again here for his willingness to sit and chat with me, and the patience he exhibited.

(BTW, I just found out that The Fiddling Horse, which he mentions during our chat, is available to watch for free on Tubi. So, I have that in my near future to look forward to.)

I also look forward to the next episode #293 that will be hosted by Marc Hershon…and who knows what wonders he has in store for you?…It's a rhetorical question. At any rate, thank you for listening, be decent to each other, be cautious when it comes to the health of others if not your own, and if someone asks you if you have heard anything good or interesting lately and you think of us, we'd really appreciate you if you'd please pass the Succotash?

— Tyson Saner

Hello, discriminating soundcast listener! I AM Marc Hershon and this is Episode 291 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. This installment is going to run a little longer than usual so I'm going to dispense with a lot of the blah-dee-blah-blah that I usually jabber away with at the top of the show so we can get right into the magic.

I will take a moment to ask if you happened to catch last week's Epi290 with my enchanting co-host, the every-other-weekly-appearing Tyson Saner? He featured a triumvirate of tasty clips from the soundcasts known as Almost Viral with Simon the Magpie, Brian & Roger, and The Problem with Jon Stewart. Don't fret if it passed you by, as you can still snag a listen via Apple or Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Audible, Amazon Music, Podcast, YouTube, and our own homesite, SuccotashShow.com. (The one place you CAN'T catch it is Spotify because we're just not doing that these days…)

This week I don't have soundcast clips for you because I'm too busy talking to soundcasters instead. First up I have a quick chat with J. Keith Van Straaten, co-host of Go Fact Yourself, the comedy gameshow soundcast he does with comedian Helen Hong. They are rounding on their 100th episode and are teaming up to do a live streaming version of the show you can watch on your computer on February 16th. So I invited him in to talk about that, and also ask how he is able to kick my ass so soundly in Scrabble.

Then I talk with comedian, soundcaster, past guest and friend o' the show Matt Knudsen. Although we talk about his show, Grabbing Lunch, which is on a bit of a hiatus – thanks, COVID! – the main reason for his visit is to chat about his upcoming victory lap. He is running his 10th and final Los Angeles Marathon coming up on March 4th, and he is doing it to raise money (as he has done every year) for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. So Matt and I talk comedy, soundcasting, running, and how YOU can help him help some deserving kiddos get better through the efforts of St. Jude's.

This week's episode is brought to you by a crossover sponsor: Empire State Gas, who is the regular advertiser for the Chillpak Hollywood Hour with Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness. Chillpak is starting their third season this week, which means they have moved to a new distributor, Subspace Radio, and to help them spread the word, Empire State Gas is spreading the wealth and dropping a spot on our show. Except they're not paying for it. I still don't get how this advertising thing works…

I hope you enjoy my double sitdown. Back in this feed next week will be Tyson and some more soundcast clips. Or maybe HE'LL have a Succotash Chat. Who knows? I may have clips the week after that but I have some more awesome convos lined up, too, so it's hard to say exactly.

What I DO know is that I'm hoping you take good care of yourself and others, try to abide by whatever crazy COVID rules your local health officials have going on right now, and if anyone happens to pass you in the liquor store and asks if you're listening to anything good lately, won't you please pass the Succotash?

— Marc Hershon

Saluton, estas mi Tyson Saner and I will be your host for this episode of Succotash, THE Comedy Soundcast Soundcast that is number 290. Last week in Epi289, Marc Hershon – with whom I share hosting duties in an "every-other-weekly" fashion – brought you a show that was a "Chats" episode with returning guest Dana Carvey to talk about what he has been up to podcasting-wise and it turns out he has several projects ongoing that you can hear more about by listening to that episode at your earliest convenience by finding it on Stitcher, Tune In Radio, Apple and Google podcasts, Deezer, and several other listening platforms…but no longer available via Spotify (More on that in upcoming Episode 290!) You can, of course, also find the show and the entire 10+ years of episodes archived over at our homesite, www.succotashshow.com

This week on Succotash I've got a trio of clips for you from the soundcasts Almost Viral with Simon the Magpie, Brian & Roger, and The Problem with Jon Stewart. And, perfect for those chilly days about now, this episode is brought to you by Turtleneck Slacks from Henderson's Pants!

On a personal note I'd like to mention that this is the first episode of Succotash that I have produced since my son turned 3 years old. Wow…I remember when he was -7…tempis fugit and all that, eh?

CLIPS

Almost Viral with Simon The Magpie This show features Simon The Magpie in conversation with fellow content creators about the lifestyle of online creativity. I clipped from the very first drop of the show about a month ago, January 4th, 2022, entitled "The Pilot Episode With Analog Weapon", wherein Simon and his co-host Analog Weapon dive into the starting of this very soundcast.

Brian & Roger Brian and Roger met at a support meeting for divorced men. Both are starting again. Both are finding it hard.

One of them is nice.

This is a scripted sitcom soundcast from Harry Peacock and Dan Skinner, produced by Joel Morris. The clip is from their "Xmas Special 2021: Some Avatar At Christmas", which dropped on December 24th of last year, in which Roger helps Brian with the arrangements for Auntie Leslie's Christmas celebrations.

The Problem with Jon Stewart The issues tackle don The Problem With Jon Stewart are Too Big for TV™—so they spill over into the brilliantly titled The Problem With Jon Stewart soundcast. Jon Stewart is joined by the staff and expert guests for nuanced discussions, updates on action items, and airing of grievances from writers over jokes that didn't make the show. Our clip is from less than a month ago - January 13, 2022 - the episode entitled "Jon Talks to Mark Cuban: Billionaires, Basketball, and Bitcoin".

So give a listen - I'm hopeful you find something entertaining contained within the audio you're about to experience. Maybe you will seek out more episodes from the creators we sample for you. Maybe you will be inspired to start your own soundcast…Maybe you will never listen to another soundcast after this one…who knows? I certainly don't, nor would I pretend to. I feel that would be unethical somehow.

At any rate, I appreciate your spending time with us here at Succotash and before I say goodbye for this episode I'd like to remind you to consider rating and reviewing us if your listening platform gives you those options. You might also consider going to www.tysonsaner.com to have a look at my other content including music, gaming videos, and an entirely other soundcast called Anti Social Show that is in it's 5th year currently and has a few video versions of the program on YouTube. I'd really appreciate it if you did. I'd really appreciate any real sponsor that might be interested in doing a little business with us. I'd really appreciate it if the pandemic was over. As long as I'm saying what I'd appreciate I'd like to throw in telling people about us. It's what we mean when we ask you to please pass the Succotash.

— Tyson Saner

All right, all right, all right. Marc Hershon, your every-other-weekly host for Succotash is here with you, dear, sweet listener. This is Episode 289 of THE Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. (What's a "soundcast" you ask? It's just a proprietary way of saying "podcast" so that we can sue people for trying to use the term sometime down the road.) I have my first Succotash Chat of Two Thousand and Twenty Two coming up in just moment, with longtime friend of the show Dana Carvey coming up in just a moment.

Before I go any further, and this is getting old having to do this every show, it seems, but another comic great got the light this past week or so. Louis Anderson joins fellow comedians Bob Saget and Norm McDonald in that big green room in the sky. A lot of the funny ones have been getting snapped up recently, which is a shame not only because of the families and friends they leave behind, but because it seems we need them more than ever down her. Thanks for all the laughs, Louie! RIP

Back to business. In case you missed last week's installment, Epi288, entitled "Busy Showbiz Clips", hosted by my comrade in soundcasting Tyson Saner, he was rockin' a trio of soundcast clips from the likes of Resting Bitch with Ali Macofsky, Hollywood Handbook, and Dead Eyes! Don't despair – you can still fill your ears with that treasure trove over at Spotify, Stitcher, Apple and Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, YouTube, Amazon Music, or our beloved homesite, SuccotashShow.com – where we feature links to all the shows we feature and as many of the host's socials as we can find.

This episode, as the title implies, nay, as it clearly states, we're Catchin' Up with Dana Carvey. Dana has been kind enough to be on the show a bunch of times since we began back in 2011. In fact, he was my co-host of Episode number THREE. So we won't be covering things like his origins, or the Church Lady, or a lot of other past history stuff – you can find that in the Succotash archives. Instead, we mainly talk about the new comedy soundcast he's kicked off with fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus David Spade entitled Fly On The Wall, where they interview cast member past and present, former hosts, musical guests, and more. We venture into a few other areas as well, including a little hint of an upcoming narrative soundcast he's creating with his two sons, Dex and Tom Carvey.

We've got a little taste of the premiere episode of Fly On The Wall, with Dana, David, and their first guest, Chris Rock, getting into relationships and fame…

You can find Fly On The Wall all over the interwebs. They're currently #1 on Apple Podcasts and probably others. They've already hit more than 300,00 downloads a week. And, right after this message from our fake sponsor, Henderson's Pants, and their new Pedestrian Pants, I'll be speaking with Dana Carvey himself. Stick around…

I always appreciate when Dana carves out a little time to visit with us. Don't miss checking out Fly On The Wall. And here are Dana's Twitter and Insta links.

There are still no calls on the Succotash Show and Runaway Truck Status Hotline but if you WERE to call 1 (818) 921-7212, we would play your message on an upcoming episode of the show. And if you are a comedy soundcaster, you don't have to wait for Tyson or me to find your program. You can snip off a 3 to 5 minute chunk o' fun and upload it directly to us at http://hightail.com/u/Succotash. Who knew there were so many ways to get in on the Succotash fun factory?!

I'm going to go before I overstay my welcome. Coming up in this same feed next week will be Tyson with the two hundred and ninetieth episode of this soundcast. If you hang around until after our announcer Bill Heywatt's closing announcements, I stuck on a couple of extra minutes of me chatting up Dana from the start of our interview. Normally we would have reserved that for subscribers to our Patreon account but I haven't actually gotten around to activating it yet…so knock yourself out.

Until you hear me again, be good to yourself and others, remember to where a goddamn mask, get your stupid COVID shots for fuck's sake and, if anyone should happen to stope you in the aisle in the supermarket and ask if you're heard anything good lately, won't you please pass the Succotash?

— Marc Hershon

Saluton, estas mi Tyson Saner, your every-other-weekly host for this first episode of Succotash produced in this still fairly new year of 2022. It's Episode 288 and, in case you missed last week's Epi287 hosted by show creator Marc Hershon, you might be interested to know that it featured clips from the soundcasts Legal Geeks, Wiz World Live, Muriel's Murders, and Dear Earth, I'm Really Sorry. If you were interested and, in fact, still are interested in that episode you can find it at all of soundcasting's major distribution points: Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, Audible, YouTube and, of course, on our very own homesite SuccotashShow.com

But this is a different installment, and I've got different content for you. I've got a trio of clips from the soundcasts Resting Bitch with Ali Macofsky, Hollywood Handbook, and Dead Eyes. I'll be including an advertisement from our fictional - but extremely well-represented throughout what will be 11 years this April - sponsor, Henderson's Pants and their new Pedestrian Pants.

Real potential sponsors, please take note: We are still on the lookout for an actual paying sponsor who likes what we do here at Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundscast, enough to invest in us…

Anyway, Happy 2022 to you…let's get to the clips.

CLIPS

Resting Bitch with Ali Macofsky This soundcast from comedian Ali Macofsky, Resting Bitch, is a weekly diary with Ali catching you up on what happened during the preceding week. The featured clip is from the episode "Cursed Christmas", which dropped on December 29th of this past year, and is from very early in the show where Ali gives us updates about how her life has been going to help set the mood for the episode.

Hollywood Handbook Hollywood Handbook is an insider's guide to achieving your showbiz dreams from two A-List it-boys who are living theirs - namely, Sean Clements & Hayes Davenport - who provide an exclusive VIP backstage pass into Tinseltown politics, answer questions from unsuccessful listeners, and bring in famous guests to discuss their craft and how they became what they are: famous. This clip from a couple weeks back, January 4th, 2022, entitled "Get Played, Our Video Game Friends", the boys welcoming back Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell, and Matt Apodaca from the soundcast Get Played (formerly known as "How Did This Get Played" re-branded for the forseeable future) to make a new video game. This clip is from the beginning of the introduction of the three guests…to set the mood for the episode…

Dead Eyes Actor/comedian Connor Ratliff (The Chris Gethard Show, UCB, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) embarks upon a quest to solve a very stupid mystery that has haunted him for two decades: Why Tom Hanks fired him from a small role in the 2001 HBO mini-series, Band Of Brothers. I've clipped a chunk from the January 6th, 2022 episode, entitled "Band of Others", where Connor talks with Zach Braff, Adam Scott, and David Krumholtz, about how they all auditioned for Band of Brothers and were not cast. The clip features part of the interview with Adam Scott, which comes quite late in the soundcast, but I've chosen to drop us in right at the beginning of the segment because…I felt like it.

And that's my first show of 2022. I should have another one for you in a couple of weeks. Next week, Marc Hershon will be your host for Epi289 and he might have clips for you, he might have a chat episode for you…or he might bring you something entirely new…I cannot predict beyond that.

I do hope that you found something enjoyable amongst the audible offerings I included with this episode. Listening to as many soundcasts as I do and (whew) have throughout the years has led to having quite a few interesting aural experiences. Maybe you had one or two of those during this show…perhaps you will find some in the archive…there's plenty to be had. I even already know one I am including in a future episode AND I know one that I will definitely be listening to in search of a second clip. It's still a fluid situation though, so who knows what will happen the next time I bring you a show? Nobody,…not even me really.

So, until then, be decent to each other, go to www.tysonsaner.com to find additional content I have created for theoretical public consumption, tune in next week, and if you'd like to share us with others we'd really appreciate it. It's what we mean when we ask you to please pass the Succotash.

— Tyson Saner

Happy Two Thousand and Twenty Two, worthy listener! I'm Marc Hershon, your every-other-weekly-host of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. Where we usually feature snippets from our fine folks' comedy soundcasts and tell you where you can go find them for yourself in their entirety. We also occasionally do interviews, and I may have one of those the next time I hold court here in the Succotashery, but today I'm "Clippin' A Crop of Clips" for you, as the title suggests.

And I am coming to you from my plush new all-electric mobile studio, Studio MX-30. (I just got Mazda's first EV car and it's pretty cool – I actually parked at a charging station while I was recording this episode so if you hear any weird clicks and hums, that's the Succotash Mobile Studio chowing down in the background.

Before I get to the lush harvest of soundcastery in store, let me shake the reminder tree to see if you caught our last installment, Epi286, curated by this show's alternating host Tyson Saner. Shame on you if you missed it because it was chock full of fun with clips from the likes of soundcasts The Dave Hill Goodtime Hour, Depresh Mode, and Multiverse of Badness. That 'sode is still up where you can grab it from all of soundcasting's major distribution point: Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, Audible, YouTube and, of course, on our very own homesite SuccotashShow.com!

As for this week's episode, I've got a few soundcasts that have been around a bit, and I've clipped a preview of a brand new show that doesn't start until next week! They are namely Legal Geeks, Wiz World Live, Muriel's Murders, and Dear Earth, I'm Really Sorry. Henderson's Pants is taking a week off of sponsoring us this week to make way for an old fake sponsor who first got started with us back in our first year of doing business – it's investment barrister Mike Diké.

CLIPS

Jock Doc PodcastBefore I get into the regular clips, I've got a bit of a bonus clip for you. Just before Christmas for Succotash Epi284, I chatted up Dr. London Smith and his producer Cameron Clark from the Jock Doc Podcast. The day before I had appeared as a guest on their show, and was interviewed as Dokter Andrew Minutiae, an amateur expert in nanotechnology.

Dear Earth, I'm Really SorryThis next clip is from a brand new show. So new, in fact, that it doesn't begin dropping until next week, on January 20th. I got a lovely note from the creator, Amy Thorstenson, telling me about it. "…I wanted to reach out and let you know that I have a new pod coming out this month called Dear Earth, I'm Really Sorry. It's a story about two siblings (an incompetent brother and a Frankenstein sister) who take over the family laboratory after their father, the greatest mad scientist on Earth, disappears. The first episode will launch on 1/20/22." Thanks, Amy! She sent along some of the earlier episodes so I could get a listen and I figured why should I be so lucky? I reached out and asked if we could play a clip before the show's official launch and she replied, "Sure! Why not?"

Muriel's MurdersThe true crime murder-slash-comedy soundcast is among the most popular genres and has been for a while. I don't know if you're a fan, but I do know that Nick Casalini doesn't get what all the hoopla is about. His other half, Muriel Montgomery, is coocoo for Cocoa Puffs over the true crime thing. You may know them both from the soundcast Hella In Your Thirties. While that show is still clanking along, they started a new show this past year called Muriel's Murders. Muriel keeps finding famous and not-so-famous cases to try and blow Nick's mind. A recent episode, entitled "Dr. Bogle and Mrs. Chandler – The Confession", about a case set down under in Australia, yielded our featured snippet.

Legal GeeksI really like this next show. First time we're clipping it on Succotash but not the first time we've heard from co-host host Josh Gilliland. He was a drop-in guest for Epi162 in January, 2018, during what was going to be our last ever installment – a live show during the Annual San Francisco Sketchfest. Josh hosts Legal Geeks, where he and Jessica Mederson, both actual attorneys, examine hypothetical cases from science fiction movies, comic books, TV shows and other worthy subject. They recently dove into the privacy issues plaguing a young man named Peter Parker, as chronicled in the documentary Spider-Man: No Way Home. Warning: There may be some spoilers in here for those who haven't seen the movie yet.

Wiz World LiveOur final offering this episode was a show actually recommended to me by Dr. London Smith, who was featured in the first clip this episode, from the Jock Doc Podcast. Wiz World Live only recently has moved into the soundcast realm but they've been doing a video show for a while. Billed as "Earth's only talk show by wizards, for mortals," they say that "each episode gives you a peek into the very real magickal world around you." The hosts, Amoenus Franco and Summersbane, are immortal which must be what allows them to survive interview entities from the multiverse! Our clips has them testing out the awesome powers of Tristán, the Trivia Troll.

Wrapping it up, if you've been looking for my reviews as part of This Week in Comedy Podcasts on Vulture.com so far in 2022, stand down. I heard from my excellent editor, Megh Wright, and there's a format change coming down where we'll just be doing that rundown once a month. So I think we'll be dropping the next column in the very last week of January.

Remember that Tyson will be here next week with Epi288 with some more soundcastery magic for you. And we're still taking your suggestions and comments for anything having to do with the show – stuff you'd like to see, or rather hear us do as we steam towards our 11th Anniversary coming up in April. Pop a note to @SuccotashShow in the socials or email Tyson or Marc @ SuccotashShow.com.

See you back here in a couple of weeks. I think that's going to be an interview – let's see what happens. Thoughts and prayers for the family and friends of Bob Saget, who passed away much too young this past weekend just after performing in Orlando, Florida. Just a reminder to keep in contact with those you hold dear or can even stand a little bit. And if anyone asks if you've heard anything good lately, please remember to pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Saluton, kaj Feliĉan Novjaron, estas mi Tyson Saner, and I will be your guide for this first episode of Succotash for the year 2022. It's episode 286 which means that in roughly 14 more weeks from…NOW…this show will be in its 11th year with 300 episodes under its collective belt.

(Full disclosure, I wrote this before December 31st. I had the mad idea to write the outro of the show on January 1st of 2022 for the sheer hell of it but I'm not sure I will be doing that.…I'll probably get back to you on that one… TS)

Did you hear last week's show, Epi285, hosted by executive producer Marc Hershon? His episode featured a quartet of clips from the soundcasts Film Threat, Hysteria, Majoring in Everything, and You're Wrong About. That show, along with every episode of Succotash in existence can be found at www.succotashshow.com as well as Apple & Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, the Audible app, YouTube, and more.

For this lead-in episode for 2022, I'll be clipping samples from The Dave Hill Goodtime Hour, Depresh Mode, and Multiverse of Badness. And still with us for all these years - we can't seem to shake them - is longtime, free-loading sponsor Henderson's Pants featuring their new Chillin' Churidars.

(Additional full disclosure…I have resumed writing this on December 31st of 2021 and likely will be recording my host audio that you will be hearing, are listening to while you read this, or will be listening to in the future…and that will absolutely NOT be in 2021. Too much behind-the-scenes? I can't hear you… TS)

CLIPS

The Dave Hill Goodtime Hour Formerly known as both Dave Hill's Podcasting Incident and The Goddamn Dave Hill Show on WFMU), Maximum Fun's The Dave Hill Goodtime Hour features comedian/musician/writer/ actor/artist/man-about-town/thinking man Dave Hill and sidekicks Dez and Chris Gersbeck sitting down to have a delightful conversation with various notable people, including but not limited to fellow comedians, musicians, actors, authors, supermodels, convicts and whoever else he can talk into it. Our clip hails from this past November and feature Dave's guest, Canadian comedian Nick Flanagan.

Depresh Mode with John Moe Join host John Moe (The Hilarious World of Depression) for honest, relatable, and, yes, sometimes funny conversations about mental health. Hear from comedians, musicians, authors, actors, and other top names in entertainment and the arts about living with depression, anxiety, and many other common disorders. Another offering from the Maximum Fun network, Depresh Mode also features useful insights on mental health issues with experts in the field. It's honest talk from people who have been there and know their stuff. No shame, no stigma, and more laughs than you might expect. We clipped from the episode that dropped on December 6th of 2021, "Aimee Mann Couldn't Hear Very Well or Write Songs. That's Inconvenient Because She's Aimee Mann", in which Aimee discusses adapting the book "Girl, Interrupted" into a musical project.

Multiverse of BadnessEach week, Zach and Mike review comics across the from the multiverse of Marvel and DC, finding the worst characters and storylines in the history of comic books so you don't have to! The featured clip is from their Issue #2 that dropped on December 6th of last year (2021), where they focus on the origin of the X-Men character Dazzler and her first appearance in a "punk disco".

Hello, welcome to the beginning of 2022. I will be honest…I am not filled with optimism about this new year being a better year than the previous one. I still have optimism, but significantly less than before. If life were a video game I would be googling cheat codes right about now to fill up my optimism stat…but instead I think I will just go have dinner with my vaccinated family and wish you and everybody here at Succotash the happiest of New Years that one can possibly muster given the current circumstances of the world as we know it.

(I'd really liked to take the time to wait until I was in a better headspace to write this outro, but I didn't really have the time.)

Time is a luxury, so thank YOU for spending some of yours with us. I will be doing my damndest to look for more comedy in the upcoming year to share with you, and I appreciate all of you for listening to whatever amount of us that you have, even, and especially, if this is your first episode of our show.

So, on behalf of Succotash, I'd like to thank you for listening, encourage you to be decent to each other, rate and review us if you have the time and the inclination, and if anyone asks if you have heard anything interesting or generally worthwhile lately, and we come to mind, won't you please pass the Succotash?

— Tyson Saner

For the final time in 2021, dear listener, hello from me, your every-other-weekly host Marc Hershon. Since you downloaded or are streaming this, you're probably not surprised that you are listening to Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, and this is Episode 285, our last installment of the year.

Did you miss last week's penultimate episode of the year, #284? With our co-host Tyson Saner? It's not too late to flag it down and shove it into your ears. He featured a quartet of clippery from such soundcasts as Web Crawlers, Triple Click, No Dogs in Space, and How Did This Get Made? You can grab it from any number of popular podcast download and streaming destinations, including Apple & Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, the Audible app, YouTube or our favorite haunt – namely, this show's homesite – SuccotashShow.com

I was thinking of doing some kind of countdown for this year-end episode but having already contributed to Vulture.com's This Year in Comedy Podcasts countdown reviews – you can read my write-up on Smartless, which came in at No. 9 – I feel like I've already slogged through a bunch of shows. Instead, I've plucked four clips from shows that really don't have much to do with one another. They're not all even necessarily comedy soundcasts but they are entertaining as hell. And I don't believe we've ever featured any of them before. Hang on for samplings from Film Threat, Hysteria, Majoring in Everything, and You're Wrong About. Our last show of the year is appropriately sponsored by Henderson's Pants timely Auld Lang Slacks.

Reflecting back on the year – the second year in which the COVID pandemic has become a regular participant in everyone's lives, either directly or indirectly – I'm curious to see if we here at Succotash - Tyson, Bill Heywatt, Joe Paulino, and the rest of the staff that keep this dreadnought trundling along – should be looking to change anything to increase the interest in or the enjoyment of the show. COVID kicked us in the rear and got us to finally make Succotash a regular weekly show, dropping pretty much every Tuesday. And although we're still describing ourselves as "the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast", both Tyson and I have wandered a bit afield from that in our choice of clips to feature. The shows are roughly a half-hour now, except when there's an interview, which tends to go a bit longer. And we're still sponsor-free, with the exception of our fake benefactor, Henderson's Pants.

So what do YOU think? Are you happy with what you're getting for free here? Do you want more clips per show? Less clips? More interviews? More commercials (yeah, right!) We also have a Patreon page waiting in the wings that you would be able to get some kind of bonus content and also help to support the show – should we fire that up? Do you want Succotash merch? Personal appearances? Our ATM PIN numbers? Just let us know. You can email either of us at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can ping us on the socials @SuccotashShow on both Twitter and Instagram. Or you can call the Succotash Show & Runaway Truck Ramp Hotline, at 1-818-921-7212. However you want to reach out, we'd love to hear what you think of the show as we head for our 11th year of soundcasting, and how we can make things better or, at least, different.

Okay. 'Nuff said, Let's launch into this Farewell to 2021 passel of clips, shall we?

CLIPS

Film ThreatThe first clip comes from a show hosted by an old friend of Succotash, Chris Gore. He used to host a show called PodCRASH, in which he featured himself guesting on other people's soundcasts that he would turn around and play on HIS show. But Chris's first love was as the publisher and editor of Film Threat magazine years ago, a great alternative look at movies and the film business, which went through a number of ups and downs and it went out of publication but Chris then resurrected it as a website and soundcast. Our clip comes from the Film Threat episode that dropped last week on December 20, in which Chris and his guests discussed Isolation, an anthology of nine tales of terror focused on people in isolation as they attempt to survive a deadly global outbreak. Sound familiar? Chris' guests are filmmakers Nathan Crooker and Larry Fessenden and, in this clip, they talk about how the project came about and how they started putting it together.

HysteriaThe next show I also clipped from last week – an episode of Hysteria, with co-hosts Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco. Erin is a political commentator and comedy writer, while Alyssa is a formar White House Deputy Chief of Staff. The description of the show on their homesite says that they are joined by a "bicoastal squad of funny, opinionated women to talk through everything from reproductive rights to romcoms." Last week, in their episode entitled, "Love Me, It's Christmas!", the hosts teamed up with comedian/actress/writer Naomi Ekperigin, and comedian Megan Gailey to delve into "all of the wonderful, insane, problematic, magical, batshit holiday movie tropes." The clip has them sifting through the Lifetime holiday move, The Christmas Setup, a love story featuring two gay male characters (played by a real-life gay male couple), and a movie mom portrayed by Fran Drescher. There's a taste of Hysteria, which you can find pretty much everywhere soundcasts are found. You can also find your way to their homesite by clicking through to our homesite, SuccotashShow.com, and then finding and clicking on the Hysteria title in our blog post for this episode.

Majoring In EverythingAre you one of those people who probably doing TOO many things in your life and having trouble focusing on how to put everything in perspective? Andrea Jones-Rooy not only has a Ph.D. after her name but she is also the host of Majoring In Everything, a soundcast that is "for people who don't know what to do with their lives because they are interested in too many thing, and especially things that seem unrelated," according to the show's descriptor. Her guest in the show's third episode, which dropped a couple of weeks ago, entitled "How science and stories will save the world, featuring Dr. Moiya McTier!" She is described as an astrophysicist, folklorist, science communicator, and all-around hero. In our clip, Dr. McTier talks about how she like to trick people into learning, and how to teach yourself in sort of the same way.

You're Wrong About Journalist Sarah Marshall has an obsession with the past. Particularly those events and people in that past that have gotten kind of a raw deal as far as how people think about them nowadays. So she like to deep dive her way into those topics with a guest and try to see if there a straighter story to be told. Most recently, in an episode of her soundcast, You're Wrong About, entitled "Winter Book Club: The Amityville Horror with Jamie Loftus", Sarah tells her guest host, Loftus (who is also soundcasting on Aack Cast, The Bechdel Cast, and My Year in Mensa) about The Amityville Horror. Is it a haunted or just big and drafty? And how the tale is a Christmas story! Our clip gets into how the book differs from the movie and how that can make quite a difference.

That metallic squealing you can imagine I'm hearing right now is me scraping the bottom of the barrel because I'm out of clips. And just like that, the ball drops for this most recent year of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. As long as you're probably putting the finishing touches on your New Year's Resolution, why not pop a note in there to download and listen to this show each and every week of 2022? Heck, go one step further and vow that you're going to rate and review Succotash on Apple and Google Soundcasts. Why not? It's free! It's fun! And I'm begging!

Much like I'm begging you to check back in this very same feed next week for Succotash Epi286 when Tyson Saner returns with some more tasty soundcasts tidbits for you in the just-born new year. Do it to it. As the executive producer of this endeavor, I want to give a great big thanks to Tyson for being on this journey with me. We're not making any money off this project and I greatly appreciate him putting in so much time and effort to craft his episodes.

Dear listener, I am wishing you a happy, safe, and reasonably sane 2022. With the Omicron variant raging right now, please take extra care during those New Year's Eve shindigs. Mask up, vaxx up, and treat people better than you have in the previous year. And, just in case anyone should have to ask you if you have heard anything good lately, won't you please pass the Succotash?

— Marc Hershon

Saluton, estas mi, Tyson Saner. I am your host for the celebration of holiday festivities that is this Christmas-week episode of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, that numbers 284…

Ho-Ho-Holy crap, has it been a rough year! If you listened to last week's Epi283, you will have heard that episode's host Marc Hershon echo that sentiment in a non-verbatim fashion. If you listened to that entire episode you would have the memory of enjoying the "Chats" installment Mr. Hershon delivered to you. His guests in that episode were none other than Dr. London Smith and Cameron Clark of The Jock Doc Podcast. It's a great episode and I urge you check it out if you hadn't already.

I've got clips for you for this episode. FOUR to be precise. They are from the soundcasts Web Crawlers, Triple Click, No Dogs in Space, and How Did This Get Made? I've also got a Succotash Holiday Classic of a Henderson's Pants ad for you in this episode that will drop the week of Christmas so…'tis the season and all that.

Me, I'm rediscovering my enjoyment the holiday season in a whole new context since having a child. He has holiday enthusiasm, and it is infectious to me. I never hated Christmas exactly…but my enthusiasm for it had waned until recent years. Funny thing, that.…

Well, 4 clips means plus or minus 25% more show, so let's get to it…

CLIPS

Web Crawlers Comedians Ali Segel and Melissa Stetten kick around unsolved mysteries, creepy cults, paranormal experiences and everything in between. Our clip is from a few weeks back (12/2/21), "Real Housewives of Crime", where they discuss some of the biggest crimes involving cast members from the Real Housewives franchise, and we catch the beginning of their deep dive into Jen Shah's telemarketing scheme. Beware of mild spoilers for the "real housewives of…" I'm going to say, "Utah"?

Triple Click Part of the Maximum Fun stable of soundcasts, Triple Click features video game experts Kirk Hamilton, Maddy Myers, and Jason Schreier blasting through the fascinating world of games, from news and culture, and answering listener questions, to debating the pros and cons of the biggest new games, and replaying old classics together. We've taken a clip from their episode that dropped on November 11th of this year, entitled "Skyrim Turns Ten", during which Maddy and Kirk share their initial reactions to Skyrim.

No Dogs in Space No Dogs In Space is a music history podcast, featuring Marcus Parks and Carolina Hidalgo of the Last Podcast Network. Our clips throws back to July of last year (2020), and their interview with Allan Arkush, the director of Rock N Roll High School, where he talks about how the movie evolved from what was going tobe called Disco High.

How Did This Get Made? Ever seen a movie so bad that it's amazing? Hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas won't just talk about it - they'll watch it with their funniest friends, and report back with the results. They've been doing it for years, as proven by the fact that our clip comes from an episode of HDTGM? from January of 2014, which was then re-released in December of this year (2021). It was a Matinee Monday episode delving into the history and mystery of Jack Frost with guest Dan Harmon.

I chose this as an extra clip this week due to being reminded of its existence by Stephen Krueger of Nooner Podcast. That's a soundcast that airs LIVE on Tuesday nights, 7:30 pm Pacific time…and has been running for over 10 years like THIS show has. Mr. Krueger mentioned that he had heard this episode that featured Dan Harmon and then he mentioned how he missed Dan Harmon…and I thought to myself "Yeah, so do I…I should probably listen to that episode again…I barely remember it etc etc…anyway, I enjoyed hearing it again SO much, I had to include a clip of it for this episode. Buckle up, folks!

At which point our episode will have reached its final moments. It's been real, 2021…a bit TOO real but, I mean…what else IS there? This is what life is. Sometimes it is hard, but sometimes it is also funny. Both of those things are relative and subjective of course but that doesn't negate anything. Having intense joy and intense grief in steady amounts for an extended period of time can be brain-changing.

Laughter has helped, and I HAVE had that this year. I consider myself fortunate to have that, and to know the people that I do. I'm grateful for family, friends, and friendlies alike. Connections have been rough for more people at the same time than likely any other time in modern history. Technology has helped a great deal and I am also grateful for that. Connecting has always been difficult for me, therefore I am always grateful for it.

Thank you to everyone who communicated with me in person, thru the written word, or by telecommunication. Those of you who have heard me say "Be Decent To Each Other" and were either already doing that or have begun to, I would like to thank you for both those scenarios being a part of our shared reality. Thank you for listening, Happy Holidays, and if someone asks you if you have heard anything good or interesting lately, and we come to mind, won't you please pass the Succotash?

— Tyson Saner